FCC Sets Schedule for Phone-Based Location Specs

The Federal Communications Commission has ruled that all cellular phones sold by wireless network operators must include some means of location tracking and eventually adhere to a more stringent way to locate device. The FCC said that carriers will have to meet the more stringent location accuracy standards that now apply to those carriers using a handset solution for E911, and they may choose which solution to use: handset-based (meaning a GPS-type chip in the phone), network-based (meaning through network software and equipment), or a hybrid (which is how the technology seems to be evolving). A date for the transition has not been set, but the FCC indicated it won't occur before 2019.